Marketing services firm Merkle has launched a unit that will focus exclusively on providing data-driven marketing strategy and integrated communications on the health and pharmaceuticals sector. Jeff Wiltrout, who had served for 13 years in marketing leadership roles within major pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, will head the unit as vice president and client team leader.
Merkle currently works with several major pharmaceutical and healthcare-related companies, including GlaxoSmithKline and sanofi-aventis.
“Merkle formed the business group to accommodate the growing interest among pharmaceutical firms in implementing targeted, analytically led marketing programs that deliver quantitative return on investment and measurable results,” said Merkle President and CEO David Williams in a statement.
Wiltrout joins Merkle from GlaxoSmithKline, where he served as director of integrated marketing and media services. In that position, he managed a team of account managers providing strategic and tactical CRM, Internet and emerging media marketing support to more than a dozen of the company's brands. Wiltrout also led the development of innovative consumer-centric CRM initiatives within GlaxoSmithKline's U.S. pharmaceutical division.
Wiltrout previously served at Mead Johnson Nutritionals - A Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. There, he played a major role in developing the division's CRM vision and approach, which harnessed customer insight to create competitive advantage and increase market share.
In 2006, Wiltrout was named as one of the “100 Most Inspirational People in the Life Sciences Industry” by PharmaVOICE Magazine.
The Snarker’s Take: Merkle is entirely too professional an organization to do so, but one of these days a marketing firm that specializes in health care clients will design a campaign around the tagline “Turn your head and cough -- it up.” It’s only a matter of time.
